Tax avoidance campaign closes Topshop stores

A CAMPAIGN AGAINST tax avoidance temporarily closed down Topshop’s flagship store on Oxford Street this weekend.

Pressure group UK Uncut staged tax avoidance protests across the country at the weekend in the hopes of cracking down on tax avoidance.

The group has criticised Topshop CEO Sir Philip Green’s wife, Tina Green, who is the direct owner of the company, for receieving a £1.2bn dividend payment in 2005, tax free because she lives in Monaco, the BBC reports.

Green owns the Arcadia group which includes fashion retailers such as Topshop, Burton, Dorothy Perkins and Miss Selfridge.

Earlier this year Sir Philip Green was quoted by the BBC defending his wife who he claimed is not a tax exile, as his family did not live in the UK.

“I think we have paid over the last five years some £300-400m in taxes on profits that have been made on our company.

“I’m a UK taxpayer, I work here every week, we employ 45,000 people in the UK and we have got a £500m payroll.”

This year Green was appointed by the government to produce a report on Whitehall efficiency which he described at the end of his report as having “staggering wastage”.

Saturday’s action follows similar protests in October when UK Uncut picketed entrances to Vodafone, which has also been accused of avoiding tax payments.

The tax avoidance campaigners are also targeting Boots, HSBC and Barclays.